Obuse: Hokusai’s Legacy

The quiet town of Obuse in Nagano Prefecture is famous as the place where Katsushika Hokusai, the legendary Edo-period artist behind The Great Wave off Kanagawa, from the series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji, spent his last creative years. Invited by the wealthy patron and cultural leader Takai Kozan, Hokusai visited Obuse four times in his 80s, where he produced his dynamic and personal works.

At the Hokusai Museum (Hokusai-kan), visitors can see rare hand-painted masterpieces alongside rotating exhibitions that trace the artist’s extraordinary life. Just a short walk away, the Takai Kozan Memorial Museum preserves a structure said to have been visited by Hokusai, as well as Kozan’s own artworks.

One of Hokusai’s greatest achievements, painted at the age of 88, can still be seen at Gansho-in Temple: a colossal ceiling painting of a phoenix, spanning approximately 34.6 square meters. Its gaze seems to follow you from every direction, a breathtaking testament to the energy of the “old man mad about painting,” as Hokusai called himself. The Hokusai Museum also has Hokusai’s ceiling paintings on permanent display.

In Obuse, you can stroll through the pleasant townscape, and along Gansho-in Temple’s paths once walked by Hokusai and the haiku poet Kobayashi Issa (one of the leading haiku poets of the late Edo period), and maybe sample some of Obuse’s famous chestnuts.